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Monday, August 22, 2011

Troll Hunter

I don’t know about you but I’ve always wondered why there weren’t more films featuring trolls. The troll is a woefully underrepresented creature in cinema history but you can rest easy, as Troll Hunter is here to fulfil all your celluloid troll needs.

Andre Ovredal’s film uses the now over-familiar trope of recently discovered home video footage to tell its tale of mythical creatures, Norwegian folklore and government cover-ups, but the story unfolds with such verve, wit and originality that the form of the film works perfectly.

Troll Hunter tells the tale of a group of students making a film about mysterious bear killings in rural Norway. They begin to follow a particularly enigmatic “rogue” bear hunter and discover there is more to the story than meets the eye. It turns out that the Norwegian government has been covering up the existence of trolls for years and employ a troll hunter to deal with unruly trolls whose activities (eating sheep and generally destructive behaviour) get too close to the general population.

Weirdly the film seems to have been marketed as a horror, which it is not. Yes, it has elements of horror in it but it is essentially a comedy that draws upon folklore and mythology, so don’t watch this expecting to be scared out of your wits. What you will get is a very clever (watch out in particular for a brilliant reference to my own favourite childhood fairy tale, The Three Billy Goats Gruff), very funny and very well made (the trolls look incredible) low-budget sleeper hit that is sure to gain a huge cult following.
Review by Neil Martin